


Choices

by LyssaTerald



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies), Thor - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-20
Updated: 2016-05-23
Packaged: 2018-01-25 20:34:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1661555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LyssaTerald/pseuds/LyssaTerald
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were Soulmates. That much was certain. They'd fought and clashed and railed against it, against the very thing that was drawing them together, but together they were-for better or worse. Now, they just had to ride out the rest of the storm with those that had held them together through the good times and the bad.</p><p>Piece inspired by series: Here Comes Your Man</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Apple

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hannahrhen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hannahrhen/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Resistance](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1036973) by [hannahrhen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hannahrhen/pseuds/hannahrhen). 



> This is a small addition that another author allowed me to write in addition to her series. Tried to make it as much a standalone as possible, but the link for Part One of Here Comes Your Man is http://archiveofourown.org/works/1036973 (still very worth a read even if I wasn’t writing this up). Many thanks to hannahrhen for letting me play in her sandbox.

She stood on the edge of the bridge, looking over the vast tree that towered above everything. It was enormous, more than three times her arm span in width and quite possibly three times that in the circumference of its trunk. Every branch as far up as she could make out was heave with apples whose skin glinted a warm gold in the afternoon sunlight. Though the tree was magnificent, eventually her gaze traveled down its length to the system of gnarled roots at its base where a solitary figure stood sentry and regarded her with ancient, amber eyes from within a face that was pretty but not beautiful in the way the lips drew down in a frown and the eyebrows drew together in concern.

"Sigyn," the sentinel said, tipping her head towards the female who had entered her territory. "I confess myself uncertain if I should offer my sympathies or my congratulations in light of these events."

A wry smile touched Sigyn's lips as she tucked a stray, dark strand of hair behind her ear. "I confess I find myself at a loss as to which is proper myself, Idunn. It should be... _joyous_...that Loki has found a Soulmate, but I do not feel joyous. I feel..." she stopped as the emotions swamped through her and threatened to overwhelm what restraint she had left. Instead, she shook her head and continued, "I find it... _humorous_ , I suppose...that even you knew before I did of this...turn of events."

Something dark flickered through Idunn's gaze as she regarded the younger Asgardian. "In that case, _Loki_ has my sympathies. You are not a creature whose displeasure I would provoke." Silence settled between them for a moment before she said, "You know I cannot give you what you seek, no matter your reasons for it."

"You cannot freely give it, no," Sigyn said as she stepped from the bridge. "All things come with a price."

"You are not the first to come to me for this. No one has ever chosen to make the trade," Idunn warned. She watched Sigyn close the distance between them and sighed. "Admittedly, your reasons for coming are different. You _know_ what I will ask, how it is that I test the mettle of those who come. I cannot give you what you seek."

Sigyn stopped within arm’s reach and regarded the sentinel with wary resignation. "You know what has happened, you know my history, yet you are wrong in what I seek. I have seen the agony inflicted by the passing of a Soulmate and tended to the aftermath of that kind of torn grief and heartache." She paused for a moment and recalled the last pair of Soulmates that had fallen to her care in the passing of one and the aftermath of the loss for the other. “If I can prevent that for him, I will.” She looked at Idunn, her expression suddenly fierce. “I know what I ask and I am willing to pay the price. I will bear your test.”

"You will know regret," Idunn said softly, but it was more statement now than an attempt to dislodge the determined set of Sigyn’s shoulders.

Sigyn just smiled a little at that, an expression that was pinched between amusement and pain. “Yes, but the choice is mine and I can live with that, but come. First you must test my mettle.”

Idunn studied the other female for a long moment even as her knuckles tightened over the hilt of her _Firebrand_ dagger. “You truly are stubborn,” she sighed and unsheathed the blade. “Strip. There will be no magic, no diverting it. There will only be the blade through flesh and your tolerance for the pain of these fifty marks.” The dark blue healer’s robes Sigyn wore pooled at her feet. Her tunic followed along with her breeches until she wore only her under garments. She stepped away from her clothes and held out her hands to Idunn.

After that, there were no more words, no more expressions. When Idunn gripped her wrist, the first bite of the dagger into her flesh was like the drag of fire through her blood and it pulled from her a startled gasp. The second, third, and fourth mark were no different and when Idunn paused to study the flow of crimson down her arm, she had to grit her teeth against the throbbing of the pain in time with her heart. Then, Idunn drew the blade across the first marks and it was like the skin of her arm wanted to crawl in on itself. By the tenth mark, she was sweating and breathing in controlled bursts.

Again, Idunn paused and studied her handiwork. Fifteen marks, blood pumping steadily from the wounds to drip into the dirt. She switched to Sigyn’s other arm and held the blade just over the unmarred skin, touching but not slicing. She waited until Sigyn opened her eyes and held her gaze before she made the next mark. It was just like before, fire racing through her blood and sweat gathering, but it was with the twenty-fifth mark that the feeling changed, that it spread through her body like the slow drip of acid against her skin and a scream caught in her throat. She started to yank her hand back, Idunn’s grip loosening and the blade pausing above the next mark.

 _No. Stop. **Loki.**_ The only reason she had ever needed to endure Asgard, to endure the loss of children and family. _Loki._ Tears pricked at her eyes as memories of a thousand years of _love_ and _patience_ and _bitter pain_ flashed through her mind. His laugh, the glint of his eyes when he had done something clever, the way his lips quirked when he _looked_ at her, those moments he was so wholly focused on a new spell. _Her. Done_. All gone, in a heartbeat. He would never be hers again. _Is it worth the pain?_ Her fingers closed around Idunn’s wrist before the contact was broken even as the tears slid free. _Yes._ It had always been her answer, _always_.

The pain lanced through her again, somehow less, somehow more, but it was _there._ From her arms to her shoulders and then across her ribs and still the scream did not escape her. _Then it was done_. Idunn had released her, stepped back and wiped the blood from the blade, but still she stood rooted to the spot, her every nerve sending fire through her still. “Sigyn.”

She took a shuddering breath and wrapped her arms around her sides. Her head felt light and she could only stare in semi-shock at Idunn as the world spun slowly around them. Then, there was only the weight of a golden apple plucked from its branch and the soft, murmuring sounds of the binding and the assent and knowledge of the fate that awaited.

* * *

The _“I do not wish to fight with you”_ hung between them like a tangible thread stretched taut across marble flooring and, for once, Thor was glad that his father had dismissed his council before they spoke. For a moment, he wondered how he had come to have this conversation, this _argument_ , and then he need only recall the precarious situation on Midgard which had only just sorted itself between his brother and Tony Stark.

“I will not give this mortal of his an apple. It will only set expectations that will not always be fulfilled,” Odin said, softer this time.

Thor had to chew on the first two answers before he settled on, “You would deny Loki the chance to spend a lifetime with a soulmate? Simply for your dislike of the choice that I have made? I do not ask this for Jane, but for _him_. I would ask that you do not condemn him to suffer for the rest of his life once Stark has passed and there is nothing left of their bond but darkness and pain.”

There was another short silence as Odin regarded his son and heir, weighed his own answer and said, “He has Sigyn. He would survive the mortal’s death and live on. Mortals die, it is the nature of their species to become sick and pass on. You would ask me to bend the laws for this one?”

It was in the _tone_ he used and the creases around his mouth and eyes that Thor knew that this was an uphill battle he would not win. Some part of him stepped back from the image he had always held of his father and... _let go_. Before he could phrase his next words, before he could even choose them, there came the muffled sound of raised voices the snarled response of another’s voice. Almost reluctantly, the large doors to the council room were nudged in and into the room slipped the lithe form of the dark haired, green-eyed _Sigyn_ whose hot glare was still being cast over her shoulder even as she nervously rolled a golden orb between her palms.

When she finally looked at them, her expression went flat and Thor could tell even beneath the thick, blue healer’s robes she wore when her shoulders stiffened. She surveyed them and Thor had to shift uncomfortably beneath that blank look she usually favored his father with. “Well, this is awkward,” she commented mildly. “Am I interrupting something?”

Odin looked at his son, briefly, and said, “No, we were just finishing a long overdue conversation.” He tried to smile then, but it came off as more of a pained grimace, “Do tell, what is it that brings you here?”

He knew the dismissal even when it wasn’t said in so many words. With a nod and a quiet, “Sigyn,” as he turned to walk away from them, he came up short when one of her small hands pressed against his breastplate, stalling him from walking past her. Her other hand pressed the golden orb against her stomach even as Thor gazed at her with a mixture of pity and curiosity.

“Funny, that you should use such phrasing, All-Father, for it is my husband that brings me here. Would that I had known _weeks_ ago we need not have had this conversation,” she said and Thor could hear the slight rise in her voice, the change in her pitch. _Anger_. “Though had you ever done right by us we need never have done this at all.”

Odin, for all his powers, could say nothing to that and, for one moment, she seemed lost. The blank expression slipped and Thor could see the twisting grief and _pain_ winding its way through her features and her eyes before she was in control of herself again. Her palm pressed a little more firmly to his chest and, when he took a step back, she slipped her touch away to fold her hand over the little orb entirely.

“Shall I repeat the most _fascinating_ tale that Heimdal has told me?” she asked. In their silence, she glanced sidelong at Thor and continued, “No? Well, I’ll repeat it anyways since it’s a tale worth repeating. It starts with Loki and a mortal by the name of Tony Stark and ends with them being Soulmates.”

Thor jerked around to stare at his father, uncertain of what to expect, but grim _resignation_ was not it. For all that his father had had his differences with Loki and Sigyn, he had never once stopped to consider that Odin would not have passed along the news along to Sigyn. That she had not come to _him_ -brother in all but blood-with her questions and her concern hadn’t surprised him. She was a healer and Asgard had fought enough battles recently to keep _all_ of their healers busy for weeks on end.

“Our warriors needed your full attention and your power,” Odin replied softly. “You saved a great many lives without that distraction.”

She laughed then, a deep throated bark of a sound that was neither amused nor entertained. Her chin fell to her chest and she closed her eyes to gather her thoughts. When she looked at Odin again, it was a hard look that had Thor watching her. “I have worked my magic to the point of exhaustion and beyond with more _distractions_ than the news that my husband has a Soulmate. Did I not prove that when I helped you to restore some semblance of peace with the Jotuns after Laufey died and Loki _fell?_ This? News that he has a Soulmate…it is not devastating, but it is something that I would have _liked_ to have known and made the decision for myself. I’d-” she cut herself off and bit down on the words that she would have used. She looked away, swallowed, and continued, “No, never mind. What is done is done. I came here only to tell you that I take my leave, that whatever contact Loki has with Asgard in the future will be of his own desire. I am done. I will heal for you and Asgard no more.”

The shocked silence that followed then wasn’t a comfortable one. Odin’s gaze sharpened upon her until she looked back at him and held that gaze. Thor, though, was simply trying to sort through the complicated tangle of emotions that her words had caused.

“You swore an oath, a binding one, when you became one of Asgard’s healers. You cannot simply abandon your duty,” Odin said.

Sigyn shrugged one shoulder. “For all that it is _was_ a binding oath, I swore loyalty for so long as you held true to me. I swore to use my power and my gifts to defend Asgard for all of eternity for so long as faith was upheld.” She paused and looked down at the little golden orb she was cradling and turned her palms up and away from her stomach to show-Thor’s heart leapt into his throat-an _apple_ and not a bauble. Odin’s one eye focused intently on that apple. She looked up again and her eyes glittered. “For all that you speak of _loyalty_ and _justice_ and _balance_ , there has never been anything to balance the loss of the sons you _took_ from me,” she snarled softly. “Narvi and Vali were _innocent_ of Baldur’s death and in the end _you brought him back_. So, their deaths were meaningless and meant to do nothing but satisfy that revenge crazed… _mother_ …of his.” She pressed the apple to her stomach again and Odin met her eyes and he was the one to look away first. “You broke loyalty and faith the night you took them from me. Yet, I have never demanded a price in return. There was nothing to equal their deaths or the lives they _could_ have had. Nothing until now. I have made my bargains to gain this apple.” She looked tired then, in the way her lips quirked in a half, bitter smile and in the dark lines beneath her eyes. “Loki will have his Soulmate for a thousand-odd years, more if they will accept my healings, and you will not have to be concerned about Ragnarok for at least another hundred odd years. Is that not worth it in the end, losing my skills like this?”

She turned from them then and walked six paces to touch a hand to the door. “And if I forbid you from taking that apple from these halls? What then?” Odin asked.

When she turned her head to look at him, her eyes were glittering again and a half-smile touched her lips as she studied him. “I am Sigyn of the _Vanaheim_ and I am not yours to command.”


	2. Greetings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, I do not, nor ever shall own the rights to anything Marvel.

When they approached across the Bi-frost escorted by a number of guards, Heimdall was unsurprised to see Sigyn and Thor. He had, after all, answered the questions that had sent Sigyn on her hunt and broken the last strands of her patience. That Thor had stood by her through her revelation of her decision spoke volumes of what had happened. That the prince was here, now, made him almost smile. For however long they had been banished to Midgard, he would See that no undue harm followed after them for their decisions.

* * *

The pillar of bright light mixed with lightning had become-perhaps-too common of an occurrence but when Thor was deposited with a bemused female on their rooftop, Jarvis wasn’t the least bit concerned. What  _did_ interest him was the composition and biological structure of the apple that the female held when he began his routine scans of all guests that entered the Tower.

The female paused on the threshold when she focused on the little rays of light that slid over her and Thor. Tentatively, she reached a hand out passed it through the light. Fascinated, Jarvis repeated the scan and watched her expression morph into one of curiosity rather than resigned pain. Her palm turned up and Jarvis expanded the scan to encompass her whole body, watching the swirl of energy within her pool into her palm and produce a bright orb of light. When he focused the scan entirely on the orb, she gave a laugh of delight.

“What is this, Thor? This is nothing that Loki would do and no magic that I am familiar with. I do not even feel its energy passing through me,” she said.

While Thor thoughtfully eyed the ceiling and sought the words to explain, Jarvis continued in his scan of the energy she had conjured. The energy in her palm was very similar in composition to the energy he could detect flowing through her body, but it lacked the biological composition that made up living bodies. So far as he could detect, the energy was held together by nothing but itself. It was a curiosity logged for later analysis.

“It… _He_ …is Jarvis. Jarvis is…like Heimdal, the watcher and guardian of this tower, but he resides _within_ the tower itself. He assesses all new occupants and guests with those lights to determine whether they are of hostile intent or not,” Thor said.

“It is a very close assessment,” Jarvis replied as the scans were logged and the results assimilated into his internal memory. “However, the scans also determine species as well as what materials you carry on yourself. As well, they are routinely used monitor the physical health of those entering the Tower. As I have no record of you ever visiting Stark Industries or any of its facilities and there are no other known sightings of you known to date, I must assume that you are one of Thor’s companion’s from Asgard.” The last he directed to the small female.

She closed her palm and smiled up at the ceiling. “My _name_ is Sigyn and I was once a Healer for Asgard, but that is no longer my primary function. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

Jarvis was silent for a moment, then answered, “It is good to meet you as well, Ms. Sigyn. The Liesmith is out at the moment, but if you would like I can pass along a request to Mr. Stark and alert him that you are present.” He took note of the way that her face closed off at the mention of his creator and the other occupant of the tower and reassessed her as a possible threat with low probability of turning hostile. Thor had, after all, never _allowed_ any of his companions who accompanied him to attack anyone within the Tower.

Her free hand slipped back to the apple that she cradled something precious. “Please, inform him that I have come to impart upon him the means by which he may spend one of our lifetimes with Loki as his soulmate,” she said quietly.

* * *

Not ten miles away, Loki released the spell which showed him the new occupants of the Tower and closed his eyes against the momentary curl of guilt and shame before he quashed it. When the perimeter spell had been triggered, he had expected Thor, not Thor  _and_ …Sigyn. He snapped the book shut that he had been looking at and ignored the other patrons as he slid the book back onto its shelf and departed the store. No one blinked twice when he vanished from the crowded sidewalk.

* * *

When he had said, “… _let your healers fix…”_ and agreed to try for a thousand-odd years with the god of mischief, he hadn’t known, would never have guessed it would have come to  _this_ . When Jarvis had relayed her name and message then asked him what he wanted to do, he’d been speechless…for once. Tony stood in the middle of his garage, a wrench still in hand paused in the middle of the repairs he had been doing for one of his suits. Carefully, he set it down and grabbed a rag to try and wipe the oil from his fingers as he said, “Pull up feed of where they are. Let me see her.”

When Jarvis complied and showed him that Thor and the female were still in top floor living room, he wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but this…this hadn’t been it. Objectively speaking, she was gorgeous despite the plain, blue robes that she wore. Dark black hair bound back, light olive skin, high cheekbones, and a fit build. Her hands were still cradled around the golden apple that she held and her head was turned away from Thor who looked to be trying to engage her in some form of conversation. After a solid minute of trying different tactics, he could see when Thor gave up and joined her by the window to gaze at the city below.

“She hasn’t said anything since she spoke to me,” Jarvis advised him. “I am…uncertain of what to make of her. Based upon Norse mythology, the name is indicative of-”

“I _know_ ,” Tony said, swiping the feed from the screen. “But _why_ would she claim that name? She can’t…It…Loki hasn’t mentioned anything about his past to me. Everything I know is based on old myths and bits and pieces that Thor has dropped. It… _Why_ would she-?” he stopped and stared at the now black screen before he rubbed a hand through his hair and sighed. He knew, abstractly, that the best way to get answers was to go up and actually _speak_ with her, but he was reluctant to do so. “Give me your assessment of her,” he said.

* * *

Twenty minutes after they had arrived, the metal door on the far side of the room dinged and slid open. Thor watched with some trepidation as Tony stepped into the room and paused to study them. Tony’s eyes slid to Sigyn and stayed there, like he was assessing something. She turned her head and met his gaze.

“So,” she said conversationally. “You’re the one.” The blank expression she wore broke and the pieces slid away to show the things she had tried to hide: pain, resignation, heartbreak, and…yes, just a flash, but… _jealousy._

“And you’re…” Tony started, but there were, apparently, there were no good words to describe her.

“Sigyn, yes,” she filled for him. “And you’re Tony Stark, Soulmate to my husband.” The way she said his name with the curl of accent wasn’t disdainful, but he wasn’t entirely certain of what to take from it. “I understand the original circumstances of your bonding were unpleasant. For that, I am sorry, but I also understand that you have made your peace. Is that correct?”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Tony laughed, recalling the kidnapping and the events that followed. Her lips quirked upwards in response and she tilted her head. He resisted the urge to fidget under the way her gaze seemed to sharpen on him. “Look, I know what Jarvis said about your message, but if you’re here to stake a claim and try to scare me off, you’ll have to do a whole lot better than this.” Her eyes shifted to a point just beyond his shoulder and a hint of something softer crept into her expression.

Even without looking, he knew who it was, as if the shift and pull of emotions wasn’t enough between them, Sigyn’s expression told him everything. He didn’t turn, didn’t want to see that guilt and touch of longing reflected in the face of the one he had chosen, the one that had cost him so much to come to terms with. Instead, he looked at Thor, who looked as lost and torn as he felt. Well, he figured, at least there was someone else in their tiny, messed up world who understood.

“She does not need to try, Stark, to stake a claim. Hers is a thousand years old bought with blood and strife and if she _were_ to try and ‘scare you off,’ all she need do is simply desire that you be gone and she would find a way to do so,” Loki said quietly, stepping to Tony’s side from where he had teleported into the room. He was wearing a variation of his usual green, gold, and black attire. “Hers is a power that is similar to mine though her nature is contradictory.”

She laughed at that and scrubbed a hand across her face. “The courts used to laugh at us. ‘Chaos tamed by _fidelity_ ,’ they whispered. How far from the truth they were,” she sighed. Dropping her hand to her side, she held out the apple and stepped forward. Loki’s gaze dropped to it and everything about him seemed to freeze. “After the last time, after what was said and _done_ , even then I’d hoped we would still find a way to work, to move past it, but you’ve made your choices.”

“Iduun does not give her apples without a price. What bargains did you make?” Loki asked.

“Bargains that were mine to make, dear husband,” she answered. “I give it to you because I _want_ to, not because I am forced into it. I will perform the healings, as well, if Stark allows it and he is still willing to go forward with this.”

“That-”

“They were _mine_ to make,” she interrupted gently and closed the distance between them to take his wrist and turn his palm up so she could deposit the apple in it. “Take it or not, but you’ve made your decision. Your presence here tells me enough of that. I know it was not intentional and that you had no choice in whether or not it happened, but it happened and you’ve chosen him.”

Loki held her steady gaze again and, before she could register the building of the spell, he had teleported the both of them away, leaving Tony scowling at the spot where they had been. “Jarvis,” he started and then paused when he caught Thor’s expression.

“He won’t have taken her far, just far enough away to have words in private,” Thor said.


	3. Partings

Indeed, “far enough away” was out to the very location where he had first seen Tony. They stood looking at each other, her hand still clasped around his wrist.  The wind that whispered past them was the only sound for a moment. Then, he pushed the sleeve of her robe back a fraction and studied the wounds he had but glimpsed. They were deep and _raw_ and climbed up her arm in a spiral, crisscrossed pattern. “Her dagger is called _Firebrand._ How many did you take?”

She pulled her hands from his, leaving him holding the apple and she could have gone, could have left it at that, but… _concern_ and worry were etched into his face and, _oh,_ that was unfair. How long had it been since he’d _looked_ at her like _that?_ A hundred years? More than that. But this wasn’t about _them_. It was about _closure_ and _enough_.She pulled at the tie that held the robes closed and shrugged them from her shoulders. His eyes widened as they caught on her elbows and she could not bear the dawning horror that flashed through his eyes.

Yes, her tunic was more or less drenched in blood. Yes, she had not healed herself, not yet and maybe not ever. These were wounds she had taken for _him_ and if pain lingered for a little longer then that was alright. He reached out for her, then, and she stepped back, shrugging her robes back over her shoulders and securing the knot again. When she glanced up at him, she had to swallow against the hard look he was studying her with. “Do not pursue this, Loki. I accepted her terms and weathered her test. _Let it rest._ ”

“What bargains did you make?” he asked, softer this time and stepped towards her again. “What pain was worth this price, this _blood?_ Have I not made you suffer enough?” He lifted her chin and rested his forehead to hers.

She took a shuddering breath and closed her eyes against his touch. “I have loved you through it all, through every loss, through every trick and lie, through the jests, and the games. I have loved you through the battles and the carnage. I loved you when times were good, when we held our children whole and live, when it was just the two of us and we _lived_. Your magic and your lies, your scars and your fragmented sanity, I loved it all. _That_ is why I took these wounds, why I _endured_ when you _swore_ to me you could love no more, when you told me you were _through._ ” Her eyes fluttered open and he saw reflected there the _frustration_ and the _pain_ of _a hundred years_.

“This will only give him a thousand years, at _best_ ,” he said, the words almost breaking. “In the end, he will never live as long as we. Yes, I have chosen a Soulmate for the rest of _his life_ , but…you would see us end when there is still a future to be held?”

She could read the fury and the hurt in his gaze and didn’t need to be his Soulmate to know he was hiding the _fear_ of the loss that the death of a Soulmate could bring, the empty gnawing _ache_ that consumed to remaining individual until nothing was left _but_ that emptiness. All it took was the memory of the last Soulmate pair that had fallen into her care at the end of the husband’s days. The wife had not lasted the year and all she, as a healer, had been able to do was keep the physical discomfort at bay until the other Asgardian had passed, but it only stiffened her resolve.

“You ask for the impossible,” she returned, matching his tone. “Left to you, you would try to find a way to keep us both and only hurt us all. I will not share and I will not ask of you this choice. Do this for us both, Loki, and _let me go_. You can have a life, a _partnership_ with him, but I will not stand to be tossed aside or made to wait once more.” She paused and let her breath catch even as she felt his grip tighten on her wrist and saw the flash of curling _guilt_. Tears glittered unshed on her lashes, but she didn’t break his gaze. “Do not make me live like this, not again, because I will only grow to hate.”

“And yet you would ask of me the impossible, as well,” he whispered.

“No,” she returned. “I would ask of you the possible. I would ask of you to see through that which you have already chosen. I would ask of you not to turn away from a Soulmate’s bond.” She could see when he saw the sense, saw the way that he wavered, and knew the moment he broke. “You will not lose me as a friend, you will not lose me as a comrade nor even as a companion, but we lost each other when you swore that you were done. So, _please_ , Loki, let me go. Let me go for good this time.” His fingers fell away from her wrist.

* * *

The  _guilt_ that Tony felt punch through the bond and curl into his very bones sent him staggering to the couch where he sat down heavily “So, she’s why you said our bond wasn’t a marriage,” Tony said, trying for light and failing. “Is this normal? Soulmate bonds randomly settling on people who have been married for a long time? If so, I can’t imagine the family reunions. They must get hostile.”

Thor looked at him from his spot by the window and regarded his teammate. “All Soulmate bonds are different, as unique as the individuals it settles on. That Loki has been married in the past has no bearing on that. His and Sigyn’s marriage is…” he considered it “… _was_ nothing that could have been considered normal, either. Loki has ever been known for causing chaos and mischief where he goes and Sigyn has always been the constant that he returned to. He could leave for a hundred years on end and still be able to expect her to be there upon his return. Even the children that my father took from them could not break her from him.” He looked out the window again, that _moment_ he should not have seen playing through memory again. “It wounded them deeply, yes, but they remained…together…in a fashion. Loki has never given any sign of wishing to release her from her vows and she has never asked it of him. Between anyone else, such a marriage may not have worked at all.”

Tony was spared having to come up with a response when Loki materialized back into the living room, golden apple in hand and a shell shocked expression decorating his features. The guilt was still there, still present, but through it echoed a word that gripped him just as hard as it did Loki: _gone._ She was gone. 


	4. Moving Forward

In theory, Sigyn knew she should have left the planet, should have let the spell carry her as far away as possible, but...she found herself standing in the pouring rain staring at _The Salty Stevedore Ale House._ Really, she could almost blame Thor for introducing her to their honey mead and getting her blind drunk off it so long ago. Her lips curved slightly at the memory and the fondness it carried. Then, she studied the old man that was watching her through the window. His brow was creased in thought with his arms crossed over his apron and she knew she looked a mess. She cocked her head and his eyes narrowed, not with suspicion but with interest.

The mortal beckoned her in and her feet carried her forward. She remembered at the last second to temper her strength and push the door gently before she stepped inside and cast a look over the other, startled patrons that took in her soaked, bloodied appearance. The owner was still eyeing her curiously when he vanished behind the bar to have a low conversation with the blonde, lanky barkeep, who gave her a startled look and then scurried away into the back.

He didn't need to beckon her again for her to follow him to the bar and retrieve a cloth bag that clinked. She dropped it on the counter, took a seat on one of the stools, and said, "What I require is enough of your honey mead to forget…someone." She knew it wasn't possible, but it wouldn’t stop her from trying. It took her half a barrel, six rounds of bellowing foreign lyrics with other drunken patrons, and an odd " _country_ " dance that had her swinging in circles until the room spun before she was laughing and smiling with the others that had joined her in the drinking.

After, as the stars were winking out to daylight and the barkeep- _Shaun,_ she had discovered-tidied up around her, she sat in the relative silence of the alehouse and nursed a coffee in the company of the old owner, trading old stories of mischief and war. The buzz and drunken hours were long gone, but she found herself oddly reluctant to leave the company of the old man. She sipped at the bitter liquid again as she watched Shaun finish mopping and wring out the last of the water from the mop with a sidelong glance at her.

"So," he began hesitantly and she raised her eyebrows. "That gold..."

"...is as real as any you will find in the veins of Midgard," she murmured and his eyes almost popped out of his skull. Grinning just a little and feeling a tiny flutter of _mischief_ , she let power creep through her body and shift the cloth of her robes into something relatively _normal_ by Midgardian standards-black slacks and a blue, silk blouse.

The owner just chuckled at Shaun's gaping stare and gulped down the last of his own mug of coffee. "I won't take that gold," he said and she looked sidelong at him. "Your company was well worth that half barrel you had and your stories worth more than I can say. Let me-"

"No," she said, rising and pushing the coffee away. "Your company was appreciated. Consider it an advance for when Thor shows up. You _know_ he'll drink two or three of those barrels and inevitably break something. Its the least I can do.” She paused and smiled with only a touch of sadness as she said, “Thank you." Maybe she would never forget, never fully heal from the loss, but life moved forward in its own way and there would be joy again for her.

She slid away from the table and stepped towards the door with one last smile at the owner and an amused glance towards Shaun's still stunned expression. Then, she was out the door and turning into the early New York crowd streaming through the streets.

* * *

 

Tony sat in his lab, trying studiously to wait for Jarvis to complete his analysis of the apple, but it was harder to do than he had thought it would be. He was staring at the latest repulsor upgrade and he couldn't quite focus on it. After another five minutes of looking over the diagrams, he gave up and flicked to the progress that Jarvis was making and felt his stomach curl in on itself. There was nothing he hadn't expected, (basic composition of an apple) and trace elements of a compound that Jarvis couldn't identify, yet...

_"What bargains did you make?"_

It wasn't free. Whatever magical juice this apple broke down into to make someone a quasi-immortal, Sigyn had made made some form of a deal for Loki so he didn't have to live a mortal lifespan or struggle to get it themselves. Somehow, it felt like cheating and that made it ring false. He glanced sidelone at the apple in question. Was this something he was could accept?

* * *

 

Pepper touched the photo again and studied it with relative calm. She had known from the first moment Jarvis had warned her of Loki's arrival that nothing would be entirely the same again. She had kept the media hounds at bay over Tony's retreat into seclusion and done her level best to not hunt Thor and Loki down and skin them when Jarvis was suddenly and totally taken off line for those few short hours only to be informed that _Tony had been missing._ The only thing that had kept her from acting on that impulse was the fact that Tony was carefully avoiding her phonecalls again. It was normal enough for them now that she was willing to give him the space he needed to do whatever he needed to do.

Now this.

She had lived through their fallout after the events with the Mandrin, could admit it was her fault as much as his, and understand-just barely-when Thor briefly explained to her about Soulmates. She had decided she could even adapt to _Loki_ being the one that Tony was supposedly bound to. She had even been able to rebuff most of the concerns SHIELD threw at her when they found out and started making nuclear plans-granted, it had taken her _and_ Steve threatening them to get them to back off, but it had worked.

Now this.

Jarvis had _told_ her about the apple and the connection with Loki that the Healer had shared, but it was still somehow too much to absorb. An Asgardian Healer defying Odin and leaving her old life behind to offer Tony a chance at immortality...no strings attached. A week later and Tony was still suspicious and running every test imaginable on the apple. The thought of him staying up for a week straight doing those tests brought a slight smile to her lips, but it faded again as her fingertips traced the lines of Sigyn's face.

At her request, Jarvis had monitored- _hacked_ -the security feeds of all cameras and motion detectors within a hundred miles and waited for the first sign of strange movement. It had come the morning after he had spotted Sigyn departing a bar. Since then, he had been tracking her movements since, reporting back to Pepper and compiling the information.

Pepper could have understood if the Healer had simply been spotted that once and then vanished off the face of the planet, but she... _seemed..._ to be making a point to stay in their sights.

Every time Sigyn vanished from one location, she always appeared on a camera or some type of feed they could track seconds later. Jarvis had even traced her to one of the moderately cheap hotels in New York where she seemed to be... _waiting_. Just waiting. Sure, she was creeping out of the hotel and venturing into the city and other parts of the planet, but she always returned at the end of the day to New York and just _stayed_ like any other guest.

It was only when Sigyn stopped to give one of the cameras a long, searching _look_ that Pepper knew. The Healer was aware of the interest directed at her and she was waiting for _them_. That, realistically, should have been her clue to let SHIELD handle the situation, but-with Tony involved in this tangled web-she wasn't willing to do that, so she'd reached out and set a meeting and been surprised by the easy acceptance.

"Ms Potts," Jarvis' voice broke through to her.

She blinked and looked up and-yes-she really had been lost in thought enough that she hadn't realized how close to three it was. "Thank you, Jarvis," she replied softly. "Can you ask Happy to bring the car around?"

"Already done, Ms Potts," the AI replied crisply and she smiled at the familiarity of it. "He's awaiting you at the private entrance."

* * *

 

The restaurant was expensive, but well worth the privacy that it afforded its patrons. Sigyn idly thumbed through the menu before she set it aside with the way her stomach was curling in on itself. Another waiter passed her by with a quick glance before he hurried on. She had been seated more than fifteen minutes ago under the reservation "Hogan" as planned, but the woman she had meant to meet was still absent when everything about her suggested that Pepper Potts should have arrived first.

In truth, she _could_ have left for any of the other realms once the apple was in their hands and waited out the rest of the process, but she hadn't been able to talk herself around to it. Instead, she had accepted an invitation to lunch from the CEO of Stark Industries in the midst of hunting through Midgard and seeing what had changed in the last several hundred years. She could admit, if only to herself, that she was nervous the longer this dragged out, the longer that it took the inventor to eat the damned apple and that didn't make for many pleasant and maybe-just _maybe-_ this was one way to try and address that issue.

The time stretched further into a half an hour and a fourth glass of water that she had drained. She was rolling the empty cup between her fingers and watching the condensation drip onto the tablecloth when she felt heard the footsteps of two someones approaching-one staff and distinctly _not_ staff. Resisting the urge to look up, she waited until the two forms entered her peripheral before she glanced up.

Pepper Potts was exactly the woman she appeared in the photos: imposing, a dangerous kind of beautiful, and immaculate. Sigyn lifted her chin and studied the woman as she was in turn studied. Fluidly, Sigyn rose and gave the human a slight bow without breaking her gaze.

"Ms Potts. I must say, I was surprised that it was you who reached out first," she said, straightening.

"Not half as surprised as I was when I heard what had happened, Ms...Lie-smith," Pepper returned, the last a question that she asked with the upwards flick of an eyebrow.

"No," Sigyn said softly, taking her seat again. "That has never been a name that was mine to claim." Pepper was seated only a moment after her as she continued, "I have ever been Healer, Fidelity, Sigyn of Asgard, or Sigyn of Vannaheim. Of late, I choose the first or the latter, but if it is your preference then just Sigyn."

A silence fell between them as they continued to regard each other. It wasn't a comfortable sort, but Sigyn couldn't find it in herself to broach the subject herself. She was under no illusion that she was an interloper in these matters and that her help might just be entirely unwanted. That didn't stop her from staying close, _in case._

Finally, Pepper said, softly, "If this apple isn't what it appears. If this is a trick or something to try and win... _him_...back and you hurt Tony in any form or fashion, I will find a way to _destroy_ you. Norse myth or not, I will find a way."

Sigyn blinked and then blinked again before a smile cracked her expression and she grinned. This, _this,_ at least was something she understood, _something she could deal with._ Maybe it shouldn't have been so comfortingly familiar, but it was the same suspicion she had always met with her own brand of humor and wit. "If I wanted to bring him harm, I would have done so before now and in a manner that left none in doubt his demise was natural." She paused, considered Pepper's expression and shrugged. "I am a Healer by choice and nature, but that knowledge also means that I am well aquainted with the ways in which best to take someone apart and kill them as slowly or as quickly as I please. An apple with the promise of immortality? That is hardly the way I would go about doing something. Its dependent on far too many factors."

They both glanced at the waitor that almost seemingly materialized at Sigyn's elbow. They gave their orders before they returned to regarding each other. Pepper was no more relaxed, but her next words weren't quite as clipped and hostile, "I...thank you for your honest words, however barbed they were." Sigyn just smiled thinly at that. "I simply cannot understand what it is you hope to gain from this."

Sigyn blinked at that and tilted her head as she studied the other woman.  She was quiet for a long moment, weighing her words and choosing how much to put into them. Finally, she shrugged, and admitted, "There _is_ nothing to gain from this. I would lose any way that you look at it if I tried to hold onto my marriage. _If_ Stark were to remain mortal and live a mortal lifespan, Loki would be crippled by that loss and nothing I did would be enough. _If_ I tried to get between them, I _might_ be sucessful, but the fact still remains that they are _bonded_ and that would be...an uncomfortable situation in any way that you can think of. The _only_ way that I can come out of this with some semblance of keeping myself intact is if _I_ let go, if I step back.  Giving Stark immortality equal to my own Aseir status is really the only insurance that I have to ensure we three can have some semblance of peace of mind.” She was grinning again at her own barbed manners even as she pressed on, “So, Pepper Potts, I must confess some semblance of curiosity as to how it is you are involved in this. If others are to be believed, then you were the one to end your relationship with Stark more than a year prior."

It stung, she wouldn't deny that, but it had been in the media for far longer than she had wanted it to be and that meant archives and newspaper and video clippings that couldn't be entirely- _legally_ -wiped out despite Tony's efforts. "I ended it, yes, but that doesn't mean I stopped caring what happened to him." And somehow, finally, _that_ cleared Sigyn's expression and made her shoulders relax a little. The Healer leaned back into her chair and studied the human with something akin to _understanding_.

"I see," was the simple reply.

They regarded each other for a time longer as they absorbed the meaning and weight of the other’s words and, suddenly, it was not such an uncomfortable silence. Sigyn was the first to turn her gaze away, but it was Pepper who invited a new conversation with quiet questions about Asgard and the other realms. Maybe their conversation wasn’t done, but they had learned enough to be satisfied with their answers and to _want_ to know the other if only a little better.


	5. Chapter 5

At the edge of the Bi-frost, Heimdal watched the conversation between the two women play out, heard the barbed threats they passed over, and registered the laughter when the words took a less hostile approach, but it was the phrase “ _…immortality equal to my own Aseir status…”_ that held his attention and made his hands tighten fractionally over the hilt of the sword that he held tip-down before him. He had heard the same whispers of Idunn’s apples that the rest of the Aseir had, of the powers that the fruit held beyond prolonging their own pseudo-immortality. The _rumors_ said that they could heal any near-fatal would and make _any_ one immortal, but giving that person “ _…immortality equal to my own Aseir status…”_ was unheard of.

Until the day Sigyn had walked away from Idunn carrying the apples, he hadn’t known anyone could withstand the _Firebrand_ dagger. Many had tried over his long years as Guardian and he had watched each of them fail. When he had told her of the events to transpire between her husband and Thor’s shield-brother he hadn’t expected that she would go straight to Idunn, had never dreamed that she would break ties so thoroughly with Asgard and seek the company of humans, but he also couldn’t condemn her choices.

Still.

“ _…immortality equal to my own Aseir status…”_

It troubled him that he didn’t know what she meant by that statement.

* * *

 

The lab was strewn with bits of technology that were in various states of completion, there was a bed tucked into one corner for the times Tony worked too long, Dummy and U were whirring happily around them, and, in the center of it all, an apple sat on a holographics display beneath the picture that displayed its chemical break down and innards. Pepper watched Tony pace his lab wearing a greasy ACDC shirt and making gestures with hands that bore several grease smudges that told her he had been at this project and several others for the last few days.

It had been three days since the dinner with Sigyn and she listened as he vented his frustration at _not knowing_ what the motives behind the apple were, his frustration at _Loki’s_ wariness and impatience, and his frustration at not _understanding_ all of the elements that made the apple _special_ , but beneath all of that she heard his reluctance to be indebted to someone. She let him pace and vent while she reviewed everything she knew.

Loki and Tony were Soulmates and Tony would live only a human lifespan unless he took the apple and that wasn’t good for Loki because _“…he will be the bringer of Ragnarok if he is not balanced.”_ Sigyn had told her more, so much more, over the course of their dinner. Some of it had been stories about mischief she had shared with Thor, Loki, and their friends and some of it had been about the wars Asgard’s warriors had fought in, but most of it had been about Loki and pieces of the life she had shared with him. Sigyn probably hadn’t meant to send her to check on Tony- _probably_ -but some of the things she had hinted at, the way she had choked on repeating the words of the Ragnarok _prophecy_ had told her enough to glean the knowledge that Sigyn cared for Loki like _she_ cared for Tony.

So. She had set aside several meetings and pushed aside a mountain of paperwork to stand in Tony’s lab three days after the dinner because Sigyn’s worries had echoed her own and three days was a long time for Tony to chew on an issue that had an answer unless it bothered him in some form or fashion. While he was swearing at the trace compositions that made the apple an _apple_ and the _other_ things he couldn’t identify, she understood that he didn’t want to be indebted to anyone.

Instead of answering the rhetorical questions he was posing to her and Jarvis about the apple and its hypothetical ancestors and various acts they may have performed, she said, “Give it back, then. If it bothers you this much, give it back or destroy it.” She paused under the incredulous look he was giving her and then continued, “Something about this situation makes you wary and that’s good enough reason to back away from it, but…” she paused again when he glanced between her and the apple with a suspicious glare “…consider the impacts it might have on your… _lover_ …if you were to die at the end of a handful of years. Aseir are quite long-lived, as I understand.”

The look he gave her after that was a long one. Having been on the end of all of Tony’s _looks_ , she couldn’t say what she read in this one. It was almost a novelty to find something she hadn’t seen in him before. “You want me to take the apple,” he said.

“I do,” she admitted.

“You met her?” he asked, a fleeting emotion flashing across his features.

“And talked with her for a bit.” Three hours and dinner was more than a bit, but Sigyn had had interesting stories and been more than interested in learning a few things she knew about Earth, but still. He didn’t really need to know that. “I won’t pretend to understand everything going on with you right now, but I think you should accept the apple or give it back.”

They both glanced at the apple sitting inconspicuously in the middle of his worktable. It gleamed gold beneath the lights. “Loki isn’t sure about this either,” he admitted. “He _wants_ me to live as long as he does or as long as the apple will grant, but- _apparently_ -very little is known about the bargains that are necessary to gain one of these things. Sigyn is the first he _knows_ of that has successfully passed the _Firebrand_ trial and made whatever bargain is required to gain this thing.” Frustration crept into his tone as he scowled at the apple, like he was remembering a frustrating conversation.

She was quiet for a moment, studying him. For as long as she had been with him-employed or otherwise-she would never claim to completely understand him. He was shallow sometimes and self-centered, he used flirtatious behavior to deflect a lot of attention and questions, but he was also brilliant, dedicated, _loyal_ , and-above all-desired to keep their world safe even if it cost him his life. That last part had been the wedge she couldn’t get past, the part that she couldn’t overlook. Maybe, _maybe_ , with an Aseir trickster out of their old legends for his lover he would survive himself and live longer than she had ever hoped.

“Tony,” she said softly. “You told me once that you didn’t have anyone _but_ me. Do you remember that?” She caught the flash of guilt, but she pressed on saying, “That was true for us up until the Avengers. Now, you have Steve, Bruce, Natasha, Clint, and even Thor. You have Loki, now. You have a _Soulmate_. You’re not alone like you were, then, but you’re human. How long can you keep up with them?” She remembered those first bullet holes in that Iron Man suit-Mark II, if she recalled right-and remembered the terror that had first frozen her in that moment. “I met Sigyn and I talked with her. I don’t think that she’s out to hurt you or him. If you can’t find anything wrong with the apple and _Loki_ doesn’t think there are any strings attached, if he trusts her, what harm is there in accepting it as a gift? What harm is there in thinking that maybe she doesn’t want to see her…ex-lover…suffer through the loss of a Soulmate? _I_ wouldn’t want you to go through that and I’d like to think, in her place, I’d make the offer for your lover.”

Pepper watched the words sink in, saw the weight of them impact him. She didn’t know him as completely as she might once have wanted, but she knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t reject the possibility of the apple being a gift simply because he didn’t want to be indebted to someone. Sometimes, he was too smart for his own good, but sometimes he was justified in his reluctance to trust people. With Obadiah, she hadn’t known until it was almost too late. Now? She wanted to believe that the offer was genuine, but she also wasn’t above thinking that she wanted the offer to be genuine because she wanted Tony to survive himself. The decision, now, was up to Tony. She’d planted the thought that _maybe_ Sigyn didn’t want anything from the whole situation beyond Loki not suffering sooner than necessary the loss of a Soulmate. It was more than she had wanted to do in the first place and it was enough. Laying a hand on something that looked like one of the Iron Man gauntlets, she asked him about the piece’s function and started him off on a complicated explanation of its design, how the malfunctions were occurring, and what he was trying to accomplish with it.

* * *

 

Sigyn paced Pepper’s office around the dark brown couch that was set in front of the desk, unsure why she had come to the other woman. It had been five days since they’d had dinner, twelve since she had left Asgard, and still Loki’s mortal had not eaten of the apple, but he had also not returned the gift. It was starting to become an itch under her skin, this _wanting_ of it to be over, but she didn’t want to intrude into their lives like she was an overbearing ex-lover who didn’t know when to stay away. So, she had found herself at Stark Industries Headquarters without meaning to show up and had asked to see Pepper. Despite the guards’ initial mistrust, they had taken her request, passed it along, and-to hers and their surprise-Pepper had invited her up to her office.

Ten minutes later, she was still pacing around the couch and Pepper still hadn’t said anything to her beyond the initial greeting. Pepper occasionally glanced at her over the tablet that she was reviewing something on, but otherwise let her pace in silence. “He hasn’t taken it,” she said, finally bringing herself to a halt before Pepper’s desk. “He hasn’t eaten the apple.”

Pepper glanced at her again, then back to the tablet. She finished something on it with a flourish of her hand and then set the tablet aside on a small pile of paperwork. “I’m aware,” she said. She folded her arms on the desk and leaned forward. “I talked to him a few days ago, but how do you know?”

“I’m a Healer,” she started and then paused as Pepper’s tone caught her attention. There was suspicion in those words and wariness in her eyes as she tracked Sigyn’s movement. Suddenly unable to complete the lie she began, she sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “I haven’t been spying on them-if that is your worry-and there are no spells active in that Tower that are not Loki’s. I-” she hesitated, turning her head away to look out the ceiling-to-floor windows. “There is no bargain that does not come without a price. The apples come at a very high price because there are few races that do not covet immortality.” She glanced at Pepper. “I have chosen to pay that price and made an exchange with Idunn for the apple. It makes me… _uniquely_ …aware of whether or not it has been eaten. Which it hasn’t.” She brought herself up short before she could continue and reveal everything. Trusting this human was too easy and saying the wrong thing for her to take back to Stark could ruin the bargain she had made. “I apologize for using your time in this manner,” she said shortly. “I shall not bother you again. Good day.”

She turned away and started for the glass door. Better to do this the human method than have the guards asking questions about her disappearing act. Better to be alone with these questions than try to connect too much with the human who seemed to understand wounds the way she did, who could _maybe_ show her what it was to move past them. Better not to ruin Loki’s chance at a _forever after_ of the sort that Soulmates represented.

“Wait,” Pepper called and Sigyn took one more step before she hesitated. She half turned to see Pepper had risen from her desk, an expression of uncertainty flickering across her expression. “You don’t…You don’t have to disappear so quickly, if you don’t want to.”

The words left her before she could stop them, “Would you like dinner tomorrow, then? There are some questions I have about Midgard’s history if you are inclined to answer them.”

“Same restaurant?” Pepper asked.

Sigyn shook her head, smiling now. “Something different, your choice. Let me know through the same method as last time.”

Pepper gave her an odd look that was a mixture of chagrin and amusement. “I asked Jarvis to hack the monitor you were standing next to, that time. It’s not actually legal to use technology in that method.”

A pause, and then, “What _is_ a proper method of communication on Midgard?” She knew what she would have done with Asgard’s technology or with another Sorceress, but this planet was young in both technological advancements and magic users.

Pepper appeared to consider her question. “Why don’t we add that to the list of things you want to know about and I’ll just ask Jarvis to contact you again?” she asked and Sigyn’s smile widened a fraction.

“It is agreed, then,” she said and then vanished with Pepper’s laugh ringing in her ears.


	6. Chapter 6

Idunn was tending the tree and pruning the rotting apples away from the heavily laden branches when she heard the soft footsteps over the soft rustling of the leaves. It wasn’t the hurried tread of one approaching her domain in anticipation of the rewards they thought they so richly deserved, nor was it the slapping rhythm of an angry individual she had turned away only return under the false assumption they could take her apples by force. She held the shriveled, blackening fruit in her hand as she considered the height from which she was sitting above the dropped fruits and decided she was better off continuing her chore.

Even if the interloper _did_ snatch one of the apples she had already dropped, there had been no bargains made and the cores were already rotten. A few thieves over the years had managed to snatch an apple or two while she was lightening the weight of the branches. They had learned the hard way that the rotten cores gave not immortality, but their greatest nightmares in return for the treachery. Rising carefully onto the branch she had been seated on, she dropped her current prize, and moved carefully to the next cluster.

Despite what most thought, her apples _did_ have a lifespan and the tree required careful attention every few years in order to keep producing the apples that helped the Aseir to occasionally maintain their immortality and extended youth. Minutes passed and the footsteps had long ago paused in their approach. Despite that, she knew they were aware of her position by the shifting of the tree’s branches and the apples that she was still dropping.

“You may as well state your intentions,” she called down after another few minutes of further silence. Almost as an afterthought she added, “Don’t take the rotten ones, they won’t give you what you seek.”

“That they will not,” came the murmured reply of a voice that was both familiar and not. It was one that she had heard from afar, but never had the experience of meeting firsthand. She stood and parted the leaves until she could clearly see the individual below her. “For what I have are questions for the desire that has been granted to me.”

For a long moment, Trickster and Guardian studied each other. “You venture far from your Soulmate so early in the bond. What questions are worth the risks you take for such a precious thing?” Idunn asked, already knowing the answer. She knew what he wanted to ask, knew the knowledge he had come to her for.

Even with the distance between them she could see the flash of muted anger that crossed Loki’s features and she could only grin fiercely when he snapped, “Play not your games, little Guardian, and tell me what bargains you have dragged from Sigyn in exchange for the apple you gave her.”

“If thine little Healer doth not wish to impart upon thine that knowledge, then not from I will thine gain that knowledge,” she returned, her voice lilting up in with the mocking phrases she was borrowing from some of their older language. Dropping the pretense of the old speech, she said, “My bargains are not gained lightly when one seeks an apple for the immortality of another. Their mettle is tested against my _Firebrand_ and then asked to strike the bargains necessary to gain the apple itself. Very few can withstand the fire of the marks and those that do are rarely ever willing to see the bargains through.”

“So there have been others to withstand your _brandings_ ,” Loki said, his eyes sparking.

She didn’t bother trying to keep up the appearance that she was like other Aseir when she stepped from the branches and plummeted a distance that would have shattered bones in another of their kind. Rising fluidly from her crouched landing, she turned to Loki and snarled, “Leave it be, Trickster. Those who withstood those _brandings_ were no more worthy of these apples than the other _Asgardians_ who believe themselves entitled to them for a bargain struck long before their forms were conceived of. Sigyn is the first to be _worthy_ of them for the sake of worth.”

“She has given the apple to Tony Stark, who is my Soulmate. Sigyn was once my betrothed and is still one whom I would see no harm come to,” he persisted. “If you deny me the knowledge of what the bargain was, then allow me to seek the apple for my Soulmate in my own right or else allow _him_ to seek it for himself.”

“No,” she said flatly, already turning away.

He was struck speechless for a moment as she disregarded him so completely as to start climbing the base of the tree with a practiced ease that made him think she had done this many times. “I am Loki of-” he started, power swirling to his command. Before he could finish, however, Idunn had dropped from the tree’s base and streaked toward him in a flash movement that he could barely track. The tip of her dagger rested at the base of his throat, an expression of rage settling over her own features.

“You are not entitled here, little fallen _princeling_ ,” she snarled at him, amber eyes bleeding into a rich gold and her features losing a little of their Aseir qualities. “There are no bargains for you to make, no knowledge for you to gain when the apple has already been given. Know this, _princeling_ , were it not for Sigyn, I would slice you and feed your blood to the roots until your death returned you to your lovely little Hela.” She held him there for a moment longer before she stepped back and let the mask of civility slide back into place, leaving Loki with the feeling that he had glimpsed something old and terrible beyond even their worst legends. “Know this, too, princeling,” she said, calmer now. “Sigyn made her choices knowing full well the price she would pay. It is more than any of those before her had knowledge of. Leave this place before you overwhelm any affection I might have for her and cause me to kill you.”

And _that_ was a more terrifying sentiment expressed by a Sentinel than he had ever witnessed from Odin. It had him making a controlled retreat-not _fleeing_ , that wasn’t something he did-but even he could admit to defeat when faced with something he suspected was out of the forgotten age of the Titans.

* * *

Far above and away from the incident, Heimdal observed the calm manner in which Idunn returned to her work despite the confrontation she had just had. He filed away the new information regarding his fellow Sentinel and Guardian and resolved to keep a closer eye on her with regards to her treatment of less welcome guests. It would not do, after all, to upset the keeper of their longevity.

* * *

The spell released him into the living and the sight that greeted him had him blinking twice to ensure it was real. For once, since Sigyn had given them the apple, Tony wasn’t locked away in his lab running every imaginable test on it. Instead, he was in the kitchen with arms crossed over his chest and one hip leaned against the counter while he stared at the apple with a considering look. At Loki’s first move towards Tony, the scientist glanced his way.

“How’s this work?”

Loki felt his heartbeat pick up a pace as he closed the distance to the kitchen and paused just before he entered that space. “It is an apple. You eat it as any other of its kind. There are… _unpleasant…_ side effects at the beginning, but they are short lived and-once done-you will be as close to an immortal as those of Asgard.”

“Immortal, stronger, faster, harder to kill, so on and so forth,” Tony listed off, glancing again at the apple. “She do this often? Give immortality out like it’s… _easy_?”

There was a pause that had Tony looking up at his Soulmate again. “No, but we have discussed this before.” _Fought_ , if he was truthful, but that was beside the point. Tony knew there was no easy way to get the apple, knew there had been a bargain of sorts.

“And you trust her? _Really_ trust her?” Tony asked, just wanting to hear the words again.

“As you trust Virginia ‘Pepper’ Potts.”

Tony looked up and met Loki’s gaze. There was no point in pursuing that line of questioning. He knew where it would lead. There was, as ever, the one question to answer: _Did he want this?_ And yet he knew the answer to that, had known since he’d declared a truce and they had started over. “Then you-” Tony broke off to study the way the Trickster was studying him. When he continued, his voice was softer and held more inflection than it had. “We’re really going to give this a go of it, then? Not just talk about it and plan for the eventuality. No going back.”

“No going back,” Loki agreed.

He didn’t know if they would survive the long years together or destroy each other, but he knew he _wanted_ that future and that it was within his reach. His fingers closed around the apple.

* * *

Central Park was quieter in the evening than in the afternoon as people hurried from work to dinner and the next crush of citizens took their place. It was peaceful, too, with only the wind and a few souls for company among the paths and the trees. It was there that Sigyn was walking backwards and talking animatedly with Pepper about some component of a spell that Pepper had wanted to know about. There were a couple of guards that had come with the human woman, but the Healer had paid them no mind as dinner had turned into the invitation to go on a walk and see the city. Certainly the city had been interesting, but Pepper’s conversation had been more so.

It was in the middle of that conversation that had carried them into hours that the first stab of pain struck. The feeling was akin to the _Firebrand_ searing its fire into her skin, but _this_ stabbed her heart and spread from there. She broke off mid-sentence with a gasp and a hand clutching at the shirt over her heart. It had been thirteen days since she had won the apple from Idunn. Thirteen days of waiting and wondering and now, _right now_ , it was working its way through her blood and magic, stripping her of the things she had bargained away.

The ground reached up to swallow her, but she impacted something else, something warm. A scream was trapped in her throat as she struggled to get enough air into her lungs. Words blended together as her vision darkened and her magic turned inward to fight the drain of _life_ from her body.

“ _…immortality equal to my own Aseir status…”_

Immortality was not something freely granted. It was a balanced thing that held so many lives suspended and to give it to one was to lose it for another and not everyone survived that process.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After four moves, two new jobs, and a funeral, the craziest 11 months of my life is closing the chapter on itself as I pick up the pieces and put things back together. I apologize for the nearly year long silence on this story and hope the chapter was worth the wait. This particular chapter was supposed to be the close, but the way it kept growing seemed to indicate that another one was in order to close this story.


	7. Apples

As with the initial three days since the apple had been consumed and Tony and Sigyn had both collapsed, Loki and Pepper regarded one another with neutral hostility when she entered the room where Tony and Sigyn had been sequestered where Jarvis could monitor them. Sigyn was slowly declining in vitals and general health. Jarvis had reported that the reservoir of energy the seemed to flow through her was circulating faster than it had even as part of it seemed to be _draining._ Tony, on the other hand, seemed to be betting better. As far as Jarvis could tell, the scars that he had accumulated over a lifetime were fading and his muscle density was shifting somewhat.

Pepper moved as she had the last three days and strode to the bench that acted also as a windowsill where she tucked her feet under her, pulled her tablet out of her bag, and began flipping through the work related items she had downloaded at the end of the day. Loki, as usual, ignored her and maintained the spot where he had been located for the last three days at Tony’s side where he was also within reach of the twin bed that had been brought into the room for Sigyn.

Though she would never admit it, she was glad someone other than her and Thor were standing these silent vigils for Tony and Sigyn, glad that someone else cared. Tony had been an integral part of her life for most of her adult years and Sigyn…she still wasn’t sure how she felt that the other woman had collapsed in her company out in Central Park. Even if only to herself she could admit that Sigyn was beautiful, engaging, and charming when she was in the middle of a story that had meaning to her. Her gaze flicked briefly to Loki as she flicked through another page of another contract proposal and paused when she caught him studying Sigyn, his expression torn somewhere between despair and hope.

“You’re a bastard, you know,” she said conversationally, gaze returning to the contract.

Loki’s eyes narrowed when he looked at the small human. “How so?”

“You want to keep them both,” she commented.

“I…do no desire to _keep_ them both. Anthony is my Soulmate.”

“And Sigyn is, or was, your wife of a thousand years. Yet you married Tony and never said anything to her,” Pepper replied, glancing at him and flicking an eyebrow up. “What _did_ you hope to accomplish with that? Keep them both in the dark and hope that no one else ever mentioned anything to the other? Would you have kept them both in separate realms? All things considered, you’re an idiot and a bastard.”

There was no good answer to that. He _had_ wanted to maintain both relationships. Anthony was human and would have lived a mortal lifespan had something _miraculous_ not happened and Sigyn has always been the one he had fallen back to, the one he had orbited for so very long. Her loyalty and love had come without concession, without requirement. Were he to lose the bond…to lose _Tony_ …it would destroy him. Unless Sigyn were the one he fell back to. Was it a perfect situation? Far from it. Selfish? Very much so. And yet she had always been there when he needed her most since he had murdered Theoric and stolen the future she might have had. And now, _now_ , she had still managed to give him…her life.

He looked at her. Named by Odin as a _goddess_ of Fidelity. She had been loyal through everything, including the deaths of their sons, something he had inadvertently caused. _She_ had been the one to try and hold them together. He had been the one to run. “She has ever been more than I deserved,” he told Pepper.

Pepper glanced at him in the course of marking something on the contract. “ _Tony_ is more than you deserve, so do endeavor to be worth all of this,” she commented.

* * *

Idunn stood on the bridge, studying the tree that had been her responsibility for so long. There had been so many to seek the apples, but only ever a few had been courageous enough to accept the full weight of the bargain. Few survived and even fewer were worth stirring herself to even look at when the apple had been consumed. The first, the one who had ruled Asgard so long before Bor and Odin, _he_ had been worth the bargain, but had not been worth saving. Too much arrogance, so _certain_ he was doing right for his people by giving them immortality at the expense of his own.

Now, though, there was the Healer. She had known from the first time the little Healer approached with kindness and curiosity that she would be memorable. It hadn’t been the apples that drawn the Healer, but rather want of conversation with someone far older than anyone else she knew. There had been no trickery to the desire for stories and experiences of times long past and things Idunn refused to speak of hadn’t been pressed at. She remembered every small kindness Sigyn had done for her or the nights when they had simply stood under the stars to watch the night pass.

That kindness was killing the little Healer. Idunn had felt when the apple had taken root in the mortal, had _felt_ the first pull of the bargain settling between the mortal and the Healer. Sigyn was powerful and fighting the slow death, but the drain was too fast. There wasn’t enough power and life flowing back into her body for her to sustain herself.

Now, this time, when there was one worth saving, she was glad to collect the imbalance of immortals and correct it. When she looked to the sky, the little bag on her waist shifted with her. “Heimdal!” she called. “Send me or I will find my own path!”

There was a long pause, as if the other Guardian were weighing the demand. Then, there was a flash and the energy of the Bi-Frost struck down to sweep her away and leave nothing but its runes as evidence of her presence. When the light cleared, she was face-to-face with Heimdal for the first time in almost a millennia. The two Guardians studied each other for a moment.

“You would leave your post for this?” he asked.

She quirked an eyebrow and a half-smile at him as she untied the little sack at her waist and withdrew one of the objects before retying it. With a casualness that belied her strength, she started crushing the object in her hands. “Any fool who tries to steal from me deserves the nightmares that the apples will beget them,” she answered.

“As well they should,” Heimdal agreed and then there was nothing left to say as Idunn turned towards the gate once more and he sent her to Midgard.

* * *

The Bi-Frost’s light touching down on the Avenger’s tower had everyone coming to full alert. Thor was the first to reach the landing pad with Steve and Clint barely a hundred paces behind him, but he stopped short at the sight of ancient, amber eyes that regarded him with a coldness he was unaccustomed to. Her armor was similar to that of Heimdal’s though she lacked the helm.

“Asgardian Prince,” she said by way of greeting as she strode around him and into the tower.

“Guardian,” Thor returned, watching her as she entered the doors, cupping her hands like she was holding something. He waved Steve off when the Captain moved to intercept her. She barely broke stride as she wove around Steve and Clint, who had trained an arrow at her. “She looks after the bargains that are struck for immortality as well as the apples when they are given to my kind. It is rare for her to leave her post for any reason.” Idunn vanished around a corner as the light Jarvis was using to scan her cut off.

“Your visitor carries two of what Sigyn first brought with her,” Jarvis informed the present Avengers.

Steve gave Thor a careful look and then followed after her with Clint on his heels, more interested than on alert now.

* * *

 

Idunn studied the small human female that stood her to block the doorway and path to Sigyn and the mortal, lips quirked in amusement. Whatever else might be said of humans, _this_ one had spirit. “I am Idunn of Asgard, Guardian of the source of immortality. Sigyn is dying while your mortal grows stronger. There is an imbalance that I am here to correct. Does that satisfy you, human?”

She was half-aware of the spells that Loki had set, but it was the ebb of life within the balance of mortality and immortality as it flowed between the two unconscious forms beyond the woman that held her attention.

“Your hands?” Pepper asked, steel coloring her voice and holding her where she stood. She might have only just met Sigyn, but Tony had been her friend for a long time and anyone there to hurt them would go through her.

Idunn’s smile turned from amused to sharp as she opened her cupped hands just enough to show the human the crushed innards of the golden apple that she had reduced to a pulp. Pepper’s hand flew to her mouth as she realized what it meant. For a long, dizzying moment, Pepper remained where she was before she retreated.

She was almost interested by the way that Loki’s features appeared to be warring between hope, despair, and guilt. _Just as well,_ she thought, _that Sigyn will soon be beyond his reach._ Her gaze centered, then, on the small Healer who was paler than she remembered and too damn still. “She did this as much for herself as for you, Trickster,” she said softly, hands closing on the apple again as she stood over Sigyn’s bedside. “Letting her go is the least you can do for this last gift you have given her.”

Loki might have had something to say, but was forestalled when Thor strode into the room and demanded, “Do you truly carry two apples, Guardian?”

“Yes,” she answered as she knelt with on knee on Sigyn’s bed.

* * *

Darkness held her hostage and pressed tight over her mouth and nose, denying her breath. Hands scrabbled uselessly at her face as she tried to scream and found that she couldn’t. _Shock_ after _shock_ after _shock_ struck at her and raced through her blood as the _Firebrand_ had, but it was different this time. There was no pain. The pressure over her mouth and nose released her and she could breath again. The swirl of magic and power grew faintly stronger as _life_ settled back into her blood and bones into the places where the bargain had dug it out. She slept peacefully for the first time since the mortal had taken the apple and her immortality for his own.

* * *

Clint stood in the doorway with Steve and Thor, still half tempted to shoot the strange woman who had practically choked an apple down the throat of the _other_ strange woman. Still, polite manners were called for when not in one’s own home, so…

“Does this mean I get to shoot her?” Didn’t matter which one. Both of them were trouble as far as he cared.

“No,” at least three voices told him.

“Damn,” he answered and then vanished up the hallway back to his hiding spot. No one was dead, dying, or in need of being shot. So, unless Tony died due to the magic hoo-doo, he didn’t care.

* * *

Idunn wiped the last of the slime from the apple against her trousers as she observed the color in Sigyn’s face almost instantly improve. She ignored the Trickster as she focused inward for a moment and hummed contentedly at the even pull between the once-mortal and the immortal. One bargain struck and an imbalance partially corrected. Her part was done. She untied the small bag from her waist and dropped the remaining apple at Sigyn’s side. The Healer would understand well enough what to do with it.

She made it as far as the doorway before she paused in the face of the Asgardian and Earth warrior blocking her path with their bulk alone. They weren’t poised to fight her and she frowned momentarily as she tried to work out the frown and intent concern that they both wore, their gazes flicking between her and the two beds. Oh. _Right_. An explanation. Maybe they didn’t deserve one, but-she glanced at Sigyn-the Healer did.

Loki was weaving a spell over Sigyn’s unconscious form, looking alternatively relieved and confused by the results. It was easier for her to speak to that confusion than the others in the room. “My reasons are as selfish as they get, but understand this, Trickster: Sigyn will not lose anything for the gift that she bestowed to you. She is worthy for the sake of worth.”

Loki cut off the spell and fixed her with a glare. “Why put her through the risk at all, then? Why put Anthony at risk if the end result would have been the same?”

She made a sound that was something between a snarl and a laugh. “An apple gained without the striking of a bargain gains only nightmares. Yes, there was an imbalance created in the number of immortals when Narvi and Vali were killed before their time, but the bargain had to first be fulfilled. None can now say that she gained these three apples without suffering and without payment. How she spends the last is up to her, but no ill will befall her for the use of it.” Then, she turned her gaze to Thor and the human warrior. “You are free to move yourselves or be moved.” Thor and the human fell back just enough to let her pass and she took full advantage, passing back the way she had come and leaving by call of the Bi-Frost.

Those within the room were still staring at the two unconscious individuals with something close to disbelief, except for Loki. Loki, satisfied that Sigyn was fine, had turned from her bedside to that of his Soulmate’s as the realization settled into him. A thousand years, or better, would be their’s. There was nothing that was perfect about the situation, but the future was there and waiting to be held.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look! An update that didn't take a year! 
> 
> But, in all seriousness, thanks to everyone that has left kudos, comments, or even just read this to the end. Its been a hell of an experience and I'm glad the author for the original series gave permission for me to write this. Thank you to one and all! 
> 
> For those parties interested, there will probably be an additional entry into this little series that will be considered an epilogue, but very separate peice. It is, quite simply, that Loki and Tony's story with me ended here and that this felt like a good closing point for them. I hope everyone enjoyed the story!


End file.
